1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for handling cheese, and particularly to an apparatus for filling, weighing, and compacting curd into individual molds.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Heretofore, the operation of filling the curd into molds or hoops in the cheese making process was done by hand. Traditionally, the mold is placed on a roller conveyor below a screw conveyor and is filled with the curd from the screw conveyor to an approximate weight which is guessed at visually by the operator and then moved on the conveyor to a weighing scale. From the weighing scale, the operator then moves the mold to a compacting station where a pheumatic press is actuated to compress the curd within the mold and remove the air from the curd.